Iets lekkers met een bite!

Oh, what a happy birthday I had last time. One of the many awesome gifts I received, was the first cook book that stemmed from BBC’s The Great British Bake Off — which just so happens to be one of my favorite tv shows. I can not even begin to explain why this book is so great and how many amazing recipes it contains. However, here’s a little peek of the chocolate crinkles, a cookie I had never had before. It slightly resembles the more crunchy corners of a brownie, and can be considered the love child of a brownie & cookie.

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For Jake’s second birthday, his mom asked me if I could bake him a Thomas cake. I was really happy about her request, because it allowed me to get creative and use some extra bright, primal colors. As you can see in the pictures, it turned out quite alright! Jake got Thomas, and the guests got a light chocolate cake with rich chocolate and vanilla buttercream.

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Oatmeal cookies may be just as famous as the legendary chocolate chip, but they’re not in the Netherlands. We use oatmeal to make porridge, and that’s about it. That is why I wanted to try a little baking with oatmeal myself, and naturally I started with cookies. Like I wrote in one of my previous posts, I am almost religiously in favor of crunchy cookies: This led me to this recipe on SmittenKitchen, a deliciously inspiring baking blog. I made some minor changes, converted the volume amounts to SI units and tried & tested a few variations. I hope you like them, and that you will share your own variations in the comments below!

Ingredients:

– 1 cup / 128 g all-purpose flour

– 1 teaspoon baking powder

– 1/4 teaspoon salt

– 1 3/4 sticks / 200 g butter (slightly softened)

– 1 cup / 200 g sugar

– 1/4 cup packed / 50 g light brown sugar

– 1 large egg

– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

– 2 1/2 cups / 225 g old-fashioned rolled oats

– 6 ounces / 170 g white chocolate, chopped

– + 1/2 cup / 70 g hazelnuts

You can play around with the addition of chocolate and nuts. I have tried these two varieties and my friends and family loved them.

Variety 1:

1/2 cup / 75 g white chocolate

+ 1/2 cup / 70 g toasted hazelnuts

+ 70 g ‘kandijsuiker’ : These are very crunchy sugar crystals, I’m not sure about a non-Dutch equivalent… Basically, you could use anything sweet and crunchy

Variety 2:

1/2 cup / 70 g toasted almonds

+ 1/4 cup / 70 g peanut butter

+ 50 g ‘kandijsuiker’

These amounts will yield about 24 portions (2 tablespoons of dough each). Bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 Celcius for 13-16 minutes.

Over the past months, I’ve also been making themed cupcakes. These ‘Nijntje’ cupcakes (a famous figure from children’s books) were for a boy’s third birthday, and the Mickey Mouse cupcakes were made for the guests of a babyshower. Contact me at theemetaimee [ at ] gmail.com if you would like to order your own themed cupcakes!

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Last year I took my first trip to the US, to California to be precise. There was one thing on top of my tourist-wish list: Visiting the Cheesecake Factory. The menu totally threw me off! Back here in the Netherlands, generally, we’re only familiar with the basic New York cheesecake, so I had a very very hard time choosing which cheesecake to try. Needless to say, I went for the Oreo cheesecake, and until this day I cannot get the mind-blowing taste out of my head. It honestly was one of the best pieces of cake I have ever tasted.

It took me a few tries, but I think this recipe approaches the sublime original, without being too hard to make yourself.

Ingredients:

– 2 packs of Oreos (2x 176 grams, or 32 cookies)

– 70 g butter, melted

– 250 g mascarpone

– 200 g crème fraîche

– 200 g cream cheese

– 200 g powdered sugar

– 4 eggs, yolks and whites separated

– 2 tbsp corn starch [or ‘maizena’ in Dutch]

– two vanilla pods (or 2 tsp of essence)

Method:

Crush half of the Oreos, including the cream in the middle, (1 pack = 4×4 cookies = 176 grams) and mix the crumbs with 70 grams of melted unsalted butter. Press them in a springform pan lined with baking paper, and let the crust harden in the fridge while you start making your filling. You could of course use more cookies, for a thicker deliciously dark crust.

This cheesecake filling can be used to make one regular-sized cake (22-24 cm diameter) or you could make party bites: this filling is enough for 45 small ones (in a muffin/cupcake tin).

Mix the egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, mix together the cheeses, sugar, egg yolks, corn starch and vanilla. Make sure the mixture turns out smooth. Then gently fold in the stiff egg whites, and transfer it into the crust. Next, you can break some Oreos into large chunks and spread these over the cheesecake mixture – don’t worry, they’re meant to kind of sink in. Now bake the cheesecake for 1.5 hours at 150°C (or 25 minutes at 160°C if you’re making small ones). After baking, the cake may not look too firm, but know that it will set when cooled. Leave the cheesecake in the oven after baking for about two hours so it cools slowly. Then move it to the fridge for at least another two hours. Finish the cake of with some powdered sugar and Oreos on top.

Although the American kitchen is well known for its home baking, the baking tradition is said to have originated from the German/Austrian immigrants. Classics like Scharzwalder Kirschtorte (chocolate and cherry liquor cake), Sachertorte (chocolate cake with apricot jam) and of course apple pastries like Apfelschnitten/Apfelkuchen are famous around the globe. And what about ‘the original’ New York cheesecake? Not to offend anyone, but the Germans already had their Kasekuchen.

As a baking fanatic and foody, of course I feel drawn to trying all these classics, and today I’ll share a great recipe for Apfelschnitten. They’re not difficult to make, and really practical at a party: everyone can just grab a piece and eat it without a plate and fork.

I used a 38,5 by 26 cm square oven pan (1001 cm squared, which resulted in about 18 servings), but you could of course adjust the ingredients to fit your baking pan.

Ingredients:

For the crust

74 g raisins, soaked in 74 ml rum

370 g flour

225 g sugar

2 eggs

165 g butter

pinch of salt

zest of 1/2 lemon

74 g raspberry jam

For the pound cake layer

53 g butter

90 g butter

1 egg

zest of 1/2 lemon

144 g flour

5 g baking powder

30 g almond powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

111 ml milk

For the topping

5 medium-sized, sweet apples

74 g apricot jam

2 tbsp water

For the crust: mix together the flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt and zest, and knead into a ball. Roll it out on a flour dusted worktop, and cover the (baking paper-covered) bottom of the pan. Poke some holes with a fork, and apply a layer of rasperry jam. Let the crust sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

For the pound cake layer: mix together the butter, sugar, egg and zest. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, almond powder and cinnamon, and add to the butter mixture. Mix in the milk, and spread the cake mixture over the chilled crust.

Sprinkle the raisins onto the cake layer.

Cut the apples into wedges, and lay them onto the cake layer party covering each other, like roof tiles.